


Loaded Dice

by Pollydoodles



Series: The Wider Pizza-Verse [4]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-08
Updated: 2016-02-08
Packaged: 2018-05-19 05:32:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5955525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pollydoodles/pseuds/Pollydoodles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“So how comes Robocop likes her so much?”</p><p>“Excuse me?” Steve avoided the temptation to look up, knowing full well what it was that the other man was getting at and trying to keep his voice even as he responded, hoping Stark would get the message that this was not a conversation he was interested in pursuing. However, subtlety was not Stark’s strong point. From memory, had never been a Stark strong point. In either generation. </p><p>They were in Tony’s workshop, Steve tinkering with his bike and Stark upgrading yet another version of his suit. </p><p>“I mean, I get the obvious attraction – who wouldn’t? Lewis is a 40s pin-up wrapped in a 21st Century package.  I’m just not sure that Barnes is looking at her that way.” The shorter man paused, wrench twirling absent-mindedly in hand and motor oil streaked across one cheek, and fixed Steve with a calculating look. </p><p>“Or does he? Is the strong and silent caveman trope all just an act, and really he’s getting vocal every night with everyone’s favourite lab assistant?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Loaded Dice

“So how comes Robocop likes her so much?”

“Excuse me?” Steve avoided the temptation to look up, knowing full well what it was that the other man was getting at and trying to keep his voice even as he responded, hoping Stark would get the message that this was not a conversation he was interested in pursuing. However, subtlety was not Stark’s strong point. From memory, had never been a Stark strong point. In either generation. 

They were in Tony’s workshop, Steve tinkering with his bike and Stark upgrading yet another version of his suit. 

“I mean, I get the obvious attraction – who wouldn’t? Lewis is a 40s pin-up wrapped in a 21st Century package. I’m just not sure that Barnes is looking at her that way.” The shorter man paused, wrench twirling absent-mindedly in hand and motor oil streaked across one cheek, and fixed Steve with a calculating look. 

“Or does he? Is the strong and silent caveman trope all just an act, and really he’s getting vocal every night with everyone’s favourite lab assistant?” 

Steve closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, internally counting to ten the way he’d taught himself to do so before he attempted to answer. Tony, used to this response from people, waited patiently. As patiently as he was ever able to wait.

Steve managed three rounds of counting to ten before he could bring himself to answer. 

“Could you- could you not?” Steve stuttered, not being able to find the words for anything else, to articulate all the ways in which he didn’t want to delve into his best friend’s possible personal life, and still unable to look Stark in the eye. 

“Could I not what, Popsicle?” Stark retaliated, glinting eyes sparkling at Steve over the streamlined face-plate he was working on as he spoke. 

“You can’t- you don’t need to talk about people like that.” Steve attempted his response firmly, still studiously avoiding meeting Tony’s smirking gaze as he did so. 

“Cap,” Stark began, flipping a welder’s mask onto his face as he spoke, and letting sparks fly. “Just because you don’t do the sex, doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t.”

I think about sex. Steve thought, but couldn’t bring himself to vocalise it. Hell, I do sex. Just because you don’t know about it. He had to remind himself strongly that Stark knowing about his love life would have to be significantly worse than Stark merely guessing about his love life. Only Natasha knew the full details. Not that he’d invited her to do so. 

“The rest of us don’t what?” 

Steve’s eyes crashed shut instantly at the sound of Darcy’s voice. This was not a conversation that she needed to participate in, whatever her feelings. Did he hope that she had those feelings for his friend? Steve had to conclude probably he did. Bucky deserved Darcy. Someone who accepted him for who he was, who didn’t feel the need to push him further than he wanted to go. Someone who treated him like a person and not a time-bomb that might go off at any point and level a city-block or two. 

Darcy’s inquisitive blue eyes bored into his own, a hint of playfulness ever-present behind them. Stark flipped up his welder’s mask and grinned like a wolf eyeing a lamb, before opening his mouth to speak. A can of rust-remover connected smartly with his forehead and he threw Steve an injured look from the other end of the workshop. 

“Jeez, Steve. Nice arm.” Darcy commented, unfazed by abrupt descent into violence. “So Pepper asked if I could get your autograph on a couple of docs.” She waved some papers at him in a manner that she apparently thought was inviting. “She might not have used the word autograph.”

“Pepper has work and didn’t come down here herself?” Now Tony sounded genuinely hurt. 

Darcy gave him an appraising look. Grease-stained and ripped t-shirt, combats that had actually been beige in a former life but now could pass for khaki in the right lighting, beaten up chucks and a good deal of oil splattered across his face. Stark wiped his hands on his trousers and came away dirtier than when he’d started. 

“Yeah, man. Can’t imagine why Pepper and her Prada heels didn’t want to come down and see you re-enact Greased Lightning for herself.” She snorted. 

“I’ll be with you in a moment, Darce.” Steve got to his feet. “Let me just get cleaned up and I’ll meet you upstairs.” The brunette nodded his way and retreated, giving Stark a lazy salute and a wink as she left. Steve crossed to the sink and pumped the hand-gel a couple of times, thankful that the other man appeared to have forgotten his earlier train of thought. 

“She’s totally into him.” 

Steve let out a groan without looking around. 

“Why do you even care?”

He could actually hear the grin creeping across Stark’s face without bothering to turn and look at it. Why the hell were other peoples’ lives so damn interesting all of a sudden? It wasn’t as if it would make a lick of difference either way to anyone else. Unless-

“Barton.” Steve said flatly, and this time he did spin on his heel to face the other man. Arms folded across his chest he fixed Stark with his least impressed look and waited for him to catch on. 

“Nah, can’t see that one,” Tony said without missing a beat. “Pretty sure Darcy likes her man foil-wrapped.”

“Barton’s made a bet.” Steve growled. 

“Has he?” Stark opened his eyes wide in mock surprise. “Gosh, Cap, what on earth is he betting about now? That Barton. Tsk tsk.”

Steve rolled his eyes and left before he was tempted to throw something bigger than a can. 

*****  
He found her perched at the kitchen counter in the common room, laptop open and paper strewn across the countertop. She sipped at a large mug of coffee whilst her free hand groped blindly at a bowl of what he thought was probably some kind of breakfast cereal. Darcy tended to maintain that ‘breakfast’ was a concept for the weak and a true warrior ate whatever she wanted, at whatever time she wanted. 

“Darce?”

“Yup.” She answered, popping the ‘p’ loudly as she spoke, sifting through piles of notes strewn around her laptop and neglecting to look up at him. He approached the countertop and rested his forearms across his, fixing her with a contemplative look. 

Minutes passed, Darcy ignoring him as she attempted to find the right page within the disorganised bundle she had spread across the counter, and Steve trying to find the right words for what he wanted to ask. Finally he managed to shoo away the anxiety and push out any old thing, just to start the conversation. 

“Do you … Like Bucky?”

“Do I like a guy who I’ve driven to the next state for because he wanted to get what he considers a superior chew toy for the dog?” Darcy didn’t look up from the computer as she spoke, tapping a pen thoughtfully as she scanned the screen. “I think it’s fairly safe to say I don’t hate him. Franky, I’ve done less for people I share DNA with.”

“That’s not exactly… What I mean is-“

“I know exactly what you mean, Rogers.” She said firmly, still not looking up from her work. 

“You- Oh god you do?” He stuttered out, pulling back from the counter and bracing his arms against it reflexively. 

“Of course I do, what do you take me for?” Finally deep blue eyes unglued themselves from the computer and washed over him, taking in his uncomfortable stance and pushing herself away from the counter and standing up as she spoke. Steve held his breath. 

“Steve.” She looked up at him, arms folded and eyes serious. “You know that there’s a betting pool going on in this tower, right now, and you honestly don’t think I’m involved?”

“Ah-“

“Not only that, you don’t think I’m involved to our advantage?” She popped an eyebrow and fixed him with a stern look. “Honestly, it’s like you don’t know me at all.” Darcy shook her head at him in mock disappointment. 

He laughed, despite himself. Upon reflection, it was stupid not to have considered that Darcy would be front and centre on the whole thing. Hell, knowing Darcy, she probably instigated it to begin with. “So what’s the grand plan, then?”

“I’m glad you asked, Mr Bond. This was exactly the moment I was hoping to reveal to you my plans for world domination.” She grinned at him, then paused in reflection. “Although, I was rather hoping there might be some kind of white fluffy feline to hand at this point.” 

Steve glanced about him then threw her the only thing he had to hand, which was a cellophane-wrapped loaf of bread from the open bread-bin on the counter. She caught it one-handed and cradled it to her stomach, stroking it gently with the other hand. “Thanks, Jaws.” 

He snorted. 

“So, everyone is involved. Well, pretty much. And, much to the surprise of us all, they’re not complete idiots, so they know they’re getting nothing out of Bucky. Which means – and this is a really important, integral piece of the whole puzzle – I’m the sole point of information, right?”

Steve nodded, trying desperately to keep up with the stream of consciousness directed at him. 

“They all think that I don’t know what they’re up to, but actually they’re giving me everything I need to know in order to win this thing. I gather the intel from them, judge the lay of the land, the way the pool is swinging, yeah?” Darcy gestured wildly as she spoke, narrowly missing smacking him firmly across the chest as she did so. 

“I feed back to them the information I want to them to have, and, once I know how it’s going, I place a bet with an objective outsider-“

Steve raised an eyebrow questioningly, but knew better than to interrupt her flow. 

“Banner,” Darcy supplied. “He’s too, y’know, nice for this kind of thing. Well, to bet on it, anyway.”

Steve’s mouth formed a silent oh in response. 

“So I bet the opposite way to the majority, fabricate the appropriate evidence and take the pot.” She finished with a million dollar smile flashing right up at him and he couldn’t help but smile back, basking in the heat of it. “I know, I know what you’re thinking – it’s a great plan.” She nodded, satisfied with herself and her masterplan. 

“Yeah, Darce, it’s great.” Steve responded. “Great way to be able to fill up your apartment with dog food.” She laughed, knowing full well that whatever money she gained from the escapade would go straight to Bucky and anything he happened to want at the time. Which would almost certainly be dog-related in some form or another, no matter how much she’d try to persuade him to pick something for himself. 

“There’s just one thing.” His voice dropped and Darcy swept her gaze over his suddenly serious expression. “What happens if the winning side is the side where you are having a relationship with Bucky?”

Darcy stepped back and inhaled sharply, before looking up at him with a shy smile ghosting across her face before answering. “Well, the thing is-“ She took in another deep breath. “The thing is, that would be both the easiest and the most difficult outcome.”

Steve tilted his head to one side and stared at her, waiting for her to continue. Darcy shrugged hopelessly and her mouth twisted into a wry smile as she looked up at him from lowered lashes. When she did finally answer, her voice was quiet and shy, all the usual the brashness and self-confidence stripped away. 

“I’m already in love with Bucky.”


End file.
